Bulldog bats defeat Manti in early region game
3-19-08

GUNNISON—Bulldog bats were in full swing last Tuesday when Gunnison downed the Manti Templars, 10-0.
The Templars, however, were no slouches at the plate themselves, but found little success finding the holes in the defense.
“We were hitting the ball well,” said Manti head coach Tom Trythall, “but they were hitting the ball with guys on base.” Manti had five hits in the contest.
Gunnison head coach Jared Anderson agreed.
“We really worked on situational baseball,” he said. “We hit balls behind runners…and hit opposite field well.”
The Bulldogs used a bunch of singles—only one of their 11 hits, a double by Max Sanders, went for extra bases—and good base running to put runs across the plate and end the game an inning early. Heston Neal led the Bulldogs in both categories going 4-for-4 with three RBIs and three stolen bases.
Anderson said his runners did well to execute and get themselves in position to score.
And as for those 11 hits—“That’s just too many,” Trythall said.
But Trythall said the game didn’t feel as though they got 10-runned, while adding the caveat that, “they took it to us.”
“They earned what they got,” Trythall said. “We didn’t give it up on errors.”
Also, Trythall adds as evidence, Gunnison never had a “big” inning. The most the Bulldogs put across in a single frame was three in the fourth.
“Usually, if you can avoid the big inning you’ll be alright,” he said.
However, little mistakes that didn’t rise to the level of errors allowed Gunnison to put at least one runner across the plate in every inning but one.
The Templars hosted Juab on Tuesday (results not available by press time) and will travel to Beaver on Thursday.
Gunnison hosted a doubleheader against San Juan on Tuesday (results not available by press time), and will travel to Salt Lake to face Judge Memorial today.
Anderson said the games against San Juan are important against a good team and is a developing rivalry.
“Anytime you can jump out of the gate at 3-0 in region play it’s a good thing,” said Anderson.